1. Field of the Art
The present specification generally relates to the field of object detection in image processing. More specifically, the present specification relates to a system and method for generating a sequence position for products recognized in an image of a retail shelf.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many instances it is valuable to use image recognition technology to recognize multiple objects captured over multiple images. For example, in a retail environment it is useful to know what the state of products is on the shelves or displays. For example, knowing whether products are stocked in the correct location or whether a product is out of stock. However, because of consumer activity products can be out of stock or moved to incorrect locations on the shelves or displays. While a human can move products to their correct locations, it is time consuming to record the position of all products. Therefore it is useful to automatically or semi-automatically obtain information about the state of products on the shelves or displays. One method for obtaining information about the state of products on shelves or displays is to use image recognition technology.
Existing public and/or proprietary image recognition algorithms do not arrange detection results in a logical order. The random order makes interpreting data or debugging a false image recognition results a difficult task, especially when the number of products identified in each image is in the order of hundreds.